Earlier today, I posted the following:
This comes from a friend of a friend. If it is true, someone cares little enough to send the very worst:
PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!
You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK, regardless of who sent it to you.
It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which ‘burns’ the whole hard disc C of your computer.
This virus will be received from someone who has your e -mail address in his/her contact list.
This is the reason you need to send this e -mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.
If you receive an email entitled “POSTCARD,” even though it was sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN.
It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of Virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept. COPY THIS E-MAIL AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS.
Although my correspondent is ordinarily trustworthy, this time he dropped the ball — as did I in reporting this rumor without checking into it myself. If I had, I would have discovered, as reader Diane Huber did, that this is not only a hoax, but a not-terribly-current hoax.
Here is a link to 2012 article from Snopes.
I betrayed my best instincts as a journalist. I apologize for any inconvenience my report may have caused.
